This a beautiful model, though it came as a surprise. I thought the model would look like the illustration on the box and not like the photo on the vendor's web page.

When asked, the vendor sent the following information:

"There were several variations of the FedEx/Flying Tigers B747. Dragon did a complete set of transition B747s from Flying Tigers to FedEx. The one you bought was as shown in the picture on the web site as one of the variations of the original, which was printed on the box. So, yes they were planned to be like that, and it was one of the variations from the original "Circle T" tail."

In the larger view of the airplane the flat-painted band in mid-fuselage shows where the Flying Tiger red, white, and blue band is painted in the final version of the series.

Not wanting to break the extensions on the wing tips, I didn't remove the protective tubes when I took the picture.

In 1964 I flew from Japan to San Francisco via Anchorage in a Flying Tiger plane which I believe was a Bristol Britannia. If memory serves, the plane was natural metal with green "Flying Tiger" lettering.

Later. Apparently, my flight was in a Canadair CL-44, which was a stretched and re-engined version of the Britannia manufactured under license in Canada. From what I can discover, the CL-44s were used by Flying Tiger as swing-tail transports. However, I distinctly remember that the plane I flew in had plush and comfortable seats; the flight was a military charter. The livery was red, white, and blue.

This one looks much better in real life. However, the model is getting long in the tooth. It's was patented 1998, and the kit box is copyrighted 2000.

One of my first. The bright colors get tiresome after awhile, and I now collect aircraft with more standard paint schemes.

Beautiful model of a shapely plane. The tin box it came in probably cost more than the actual model.